February 07, 2019 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Humorism Casted Long Shadows
Dislocation of the crystalline lens from
its immune-privileged position along with the accompanying perforating trauma
elicits a strong immune reaction that leads to inflammation in the posterior
compartment of the eye.
The trauma route serves as a pathway both
for vessels and the entire army of immune cells loaded with their arsenal of immune
mediators to enter the space that was once cloistered.
Such an acute inflammation can very often
lead to secondary rise in intro ocular pressure and eventually to the damage of
the optic nerve.
Such a traumatic procedure can even lead to
retinal detachment which surely would have led to blindness in the days of
couching.
For whatever may have been the surgical
achievements of Susruta one thing is definitely sure that there was not even
the barest of development in the area of vitreo-retinal surgery.
In today’s modern cataract surgery couching
has not the remotest of the place.
In fact such a process can only happen
during an inadvertent or penetrating or globe perforating trauma and is far
from a surgical feat.
So these were the times when ayurveda along
with humorism of Hippocrates reigned supreme and would do so for almost 20 or
more centuries since medicine remained virtually static!
Even though the knowledge of human body
kept on accumulating medicine as such remained largely confined to trial and
errors of various concoctions that were largely not only unproven but of little
use other than the placebo effects.
For an idea to remain static and
unchallenged for 20 centuries (and only then to be proven wrong) is a feat by
itself!
The Romans, Islamic physicians and then the
European physicians adopted the idea with great zeal that led to fanciful
constructions of their spas and saunas on this principle of balance of these
humors.
The city of Bath in the Somerset county of
England that houses Roman Baths is a standing historical example that I have
happened to go and see for myself.
Today very sensibly and in accordance with
the acceptance of the germ theory of disease the Roman Baths are no longer used
for bathing.
I am sure you can guess why.
There is a great danger of acquiring
infectious diseases as the combination of large number of apes and warm tepid
static water forms a fertile spot for microbial life to proliferate.
In fact in the year of 1978 a young girl
died of meningitis after swimming in one of these Roman Baths and that provoked
the government to close down the baths for swimming.
Not in every society are the apes sensible
enough to adhere to scientific advisories and law passed by their parliaments.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is Professor
Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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